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<title>Running Eclipse</title>
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<h1>Running Eclipse</h1>
<p>After installing (unzipping) the Eclipse install into a directory (e.g., c:\eclipse),
the workbench is started by running the Eclipse executable found in the
top-level install directory.&nbsp; The file is <tt>eclipse.exe</tt> on Windows
systems and simply <tt>eclipse</tt> on Linux systems. Note, the following
discussion details the setup on Windows systems.&nbsp; The Linux setup is
analogous. </p>

<p>If you don't specify differently, the platform creates a default workspace
directory as a sibling of the executable (e.g., c:\eclipse\workspace).&nbsp;
This workspace directory is used as the default content area for your projects
as well as for holding any required metadata.&nbsp; For shared or
multi-workspace installs you should explicitly state the location of your
workspace rather than using the default.&nbsp; There are two ways to control the
location of your workspace; using the current working directory or using the
-data command line argument.</p>

<p>Perhaps the easiest way of using the current working directory is to create a
shortcut using the following steps:</p>

<ol>
  <li>Navigate to eclipse.exe in the Windows Explorer and using a right button drag, create a shortcut
    to eclipse.exe.</li>
  <li>Edit the properties of the shortcut such that the &quot;Start in:&quot;
    box identifies the location of your workspace (e.g., c:\myworkspace).</li>
  <li>Close the properties dialog and double-click on the shortcut.</li>
</ol>
<p>Of course you can get the same effect using a command prompt by changing
directory to your workspace directory and then running eclipse.exe.</p>

<p>To use the -data command line argument, simply add <tt>-data &lt;your workspace
location&gt;</tt> (e.g., -data c:\myworkspace)
to the &quot;Target:&quot; line in the shortcut or include it explicitly on your
command prompt command line.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Advanced topics in running Eclipse </h2>

<p>The Eclipse executable and the platform itself offers a number of execution
options of interest to people developing or debugging parts of Eclipse.&nbsp;
The general form of running the Eclipse executable is:</p>

<blockquote>

<p><tt>eclipse [platform options] [-vmargs [Java VM arguments]]</tt></p>

</blockquote>

<p>where the valid platform options are:</p>

<div align="center">
  <center>

<table border="0" width="90%">
  <tr>
    <td width="25%" valign="top">-application &lt;app id&gt;</td>
    <td width="75%">Identifies the application to run.&nbsp; If not specified,
      the Eclipse workbench is run.&nbsp; Applications are declared by plug-ins
      supplying extensions to the org.eclipse.core.runtime.applications
      extension point.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="25%" valign="top">-boot &lt;boot code path&gt;</td>
    <td width="75%">Defines the path to the boot plug-in code (i.e., boot.jar).&nbsp;
      Only required when changing the relative location of startup.jar and
      boot.jar.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="25%" valign="top">-consolelog</td>
    <td width="75%">Mirrors the platform's error log to the console used to run
      Eclipse.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="25%" valign="top">-data &lt;workspace path&gt;</td>
    <td width="75%">Defines the path of the workspace on which to run the
      platform.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="25%" valign="top">-debug [options file path]</td>
    <td width="75%">Puts the platform in debug mode and loads the debug options
      in the specified file.&nbsp; If a file path is not given, the platform
      looks in the platform install directory and in the workspace's metadata
      directory for a file called &quot;.options&quot;.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="25%" valign="top">-dev [classpath entries]</td>
    <td width="75%">Puts the platform in development mode.&nbsp; The optional
      classpath entries (a comma-separated list) are added to each plug-in's classpath.&nbsp; For
      example, when developing plug-ins, use &quot;-dev bin&quot; to add the
      Java tooling's bin directory for each plug-in.&nbsp; Redundant or non-existant
      classpath entries are eliminated.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="25%" valign="top">-nosplash</td>
    <td width="75%">Runs the platform without putting up the splash screen.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="25%" valign="top">-os &lt;os-id&gt;</td>
    <td width="75%">Defines the operating system on which the platform is
      running.&nbsp; Typically the platform can detect the OS but some
      situations may require explicit specification.&nbsp; The value specified
      here is related to Platform.getOS().</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="25%" valign="top">-vm &lt;vm path&gt;</td>
    <td width="75%">Specifies the Java VM to use to run the platform.&nbsp; If
      not specified, a Java VM is located relative to the Eclipse executable.</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td width="25%" valign="top">-ws &lt;ws-id&gt;</td>
    <td width="75%">Defines the window system on which the platform is
      running.&nbsp; In many cases the platform can detect the window system but
      some situations may require explicit specification.&nbsp; The value
      specified here is related to Platform.getWS().</td>
  </tr>
</table>

  </center>
</div>

<p>All arguments following (but not including) the -vmargs entry are passed
directly through to the indicated Java VM as virtual machine arguments (i.e.,
before the class to run).&nbsp; All arguments preceding the -vmargs entry (with
the exception of -vm and -nosplash) are passed directly through to the platform
for interpretation.</p>

<h2>Running on Different VMs&nbsp;</h2>
<h3>Running Eclipse on J9</h3>

When running Eclipse on J9, it is recommended that you use the following VM
options.&nbsp; Please refer to the J9 VM documentation and help for further
information:
<blockquote>
  <pre>eclipse.exe [eclipse arguments] -vm &lt;path to j9w.exe&gt; 
            -vmargs -ms:20 -jit -mo:32000 -mx:200000</pre>

</blockquote>
<p><b>NOTE: </b>the -vmargs flag and the actual vm arguments must come at the
end of the line.</p>

<h3>Running Eclipse on the IBM Developer Kit, Java(TM) Technology Edition VM</h3>

<p>The default vm settings for IBM Developer Kit, Java(TM) Technology Edition 1.3 Linux work well for initial exploration, but
are not sufficient for larger scale development. For large-scale development you
should&nbsp; modify your vm arguments
to make more heap available:&nbsp;</p>

<blockquote>

<pre>-vmargs -Xmx256M </pre>

</blockquote>

<p> will allow the Java heap to grow
to 256MB.</p>

<P><br>
<img align="texttop" src = ../ngibmcpy.gif width="195" height="12">
</P>


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